Brilliant “Violet Hill” Video

July 10, 2008

Coldplay is a band I have always hated to like, a group I disliked at first but which won me over when I happened to see them performing somewhere on TV… and they were stunning, very few bands have real presence when performing on TV shows, the worst musical venue on the planet. Despite being more talented than most people will admit, and putting out some stunning and beautiful songs, they just haven’t been getting any better… each album is more of the same and I keep waiting for them to grow. Well, I haven’t heard the new album yet, but if “Violet Hill” is any indication, then they’ve finally grown up some, and are starting to come into their own.

The true Coldplay coup is this new video, however, an alternate version of their official video assembled from found footage by director Mat Whitecross. Firstly, it brings all the political themes of the song to the surface in an engaging fashion (keep the lyric “when the future’s architectured / by a carnival of idiots on show / you’d better lie low” in your head while viewing the film). Secondly, there are some truly distressing and poignant scenes, such as the “dancing” prisoner who is being electrocuted (amidst footage of politicians and soldiers dancing with much more glee), and although the scene with Bush orchestrating the missiles is pretty heavy-handed, it’s cleverly constructed.

My great complaint, however, is that the director should have resisted the urge to crosscut the fireworks at the end with explosions. Resisting the urge to undercut their visual splendor would have resulted in an interesting ambiguity and made the film something much greater. Regardless, this is a cut above the standard video-reinterpretation crap you find on YouTube, alongside uninspired mashups, and worth your time.